Head of Legal

Working with Us
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Position: Director and Head of Legal, India

Level: EG-150

Location: Mumbai, India  

Overview:

This position will be primarily responsible for providing legal support to the Mumbai commercial affiliate and the Hyderabad site operation, both located in India. The role will focus on assessing, managing and explaining legal risk, ensuring compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, providing education on relevant legal matters, and responding to the legal needs of Mumbai and Hyderabad organizations in India. 

This position will report to the APAC Legal Head. This position will not have direct reports. This role will be office-based in Mumbai and will require travel to Hyderabad, India.

Responsibilities:

Advise Business Operations

• Provide legal support to the day-to-day business operation managed by the Mumbai office, including commercial, R&D, medical, access, sales and marketing, and all supporting functions including finance, HR, regulatory, IT, supply chain, and others, to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, as well internal client access to clear, concise and tailored legal advice to appropriately achieve business goals. 
• Provide legal advice on day-to-day Hyderabad site operational matters such as contracting, employment, privacy and other areas in law that are not related to drug development.
• Identify, manage and mitigate legal risks as well as provide support when legal issues arise.
• Keep HQ, regional and market management informed of potential liability of ongoing litigation and potential new contingency/litigation.
• Act as the Legal representative on, and proactively participate in, certain Committees led by the General Manager and/or Site lead, as applicable, and other members of the leadership team as part of the affiliates’ governance model.
• Support the defense and protection of IP rights in coordination with the global IP team. 
• Lead and develop, as applicable, in close collaboration with other Law Departments around the world and at headquarters, legal guidelines and education as part of preventive initiatives and to assist in the speedy resolution of legal matters.
• Participate in initiatives focused on continuous monitoring of the external environment, including the development of relevant laws and industry codes to assist in anticipating, assessing and advising on potential impact and opportunities. Work with and participate in Trade Associations to proactively advocate in relation to their content and approval, as needed.

Ensure Proper Governance and Compliance

• Embrace BMS culture of integrity and strictly adhere to BMS principles and policies.
• Escalate issues appropriately.
• Work closely and collaborate with Compliance on the review of new initiatives and projects, as well as in the delivery of training, simplification and development of procedures impacting business activities. Partner with Compliance to ensure potential legal and compliance risks are mitigated and appropriately addressed while avoiding duplication of efforts.
• Participate as a member of the Compliance Committee. Provide constructive recommendations to continuously improve BMS’ compliance program.
• Act as legal counsel on internal investigations by working with the global Compliance & Ethics team, Employee Relations and Corporate Security, as necessary.
• Support internal and external audits and inspections and, as appropriate, support execution of audit follow-up actions.
• Help build a culture of documenting information properly, managing and sharing knowledge and learning timely and appropriately, keeping confidentiality of information.
• Promote a transparent and healthy work environment and trustworthy relationship.
• Serve as Integrity and Diversity & Inclusion model by leading through example.

Manage external counsel

• Properly leverage external legal support and manage legal spending within the budget.
• Consistently prioritize workload based on business needs and communicate prioritization.

Qualification:

• Law degree and qualification to practice law in India from an accredited University.
• An average of 10 years of professional qualified experience, preferably in life-science/pharmaceutical law.

• Working experience with multinational pharmaceutical companies preferred.
• Excellent oral and written communication in English and local languages.

Essential Skills and Abilities:

• Superior personal integrity and ethics. 
• Creative, innovative thinking and solution oriented.
• Take ownership for work while extending trust and empowering others to own their work.
• Demonstrated ability to establish leadership and maintain strong collaboration and teamwork across the business and within the Law Department.
• Excellent analytical and strategic thinking skills, with attention to detail and impact on broader organization. Ability to recognize and appropriately escalate to manager and/or subject matter experts on higher risk or other issues.
• Ability to communicate complex issues clearly, verbally and in writing, anticipating the expected level of detail and preparing for potential follow-up questions.
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects under deadline pressure. 
• Hands-on and team player. Ability to integrate, influence and collaborate with others to support speedy and appropriate decision-making.

If you come across a role that intrigues you but doesn’t perfectly line up with your resume, we encourage you to apply anyway. You could be one step away from work that will transform your life and career.

Uniquely Interesting Work, Life-changing Careers
With a single vision as inspiring as “Transforming patients’ lives through science™ ”, every BMS employee plays an integral role in work that goes far beyond ordinary. Each of us is empowered to apply our individual talents and unique perspectives in a supportive culture, promoting global participation in clinical trials, while our shared values of passion, innovation, urgency, accountability, inclusion and integrity bring out the highest potential of each of our colleagues.

On-site Protocol

BMS has an occupancy structure that determines where an employee is required to conduct their work. This structure includes site-essential, site-by-design, field-based and remote-by-design jobs. The occupancy type that you are assigned is determined by the nature and responsibilities of your role:

Site-essential roles require 100% of shifts onsite at your assigned facility. Site-by-design roles may be eligible for a hybrid work model with at least 50% onsite at your assigned facility. For these roles, onsite presence is considered an essential job function and is critical to collaboration, innovation, productivity, and a positive Company culture. For field-based and remote-by-design roles the ability to physically travel to visit customers, patients or business partners and to attend meetings on behalf of BMS as directed is an essential job function.

BMS is dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities can excel through a transparent recruitment process, reasonable workplace accommodations/adjustments and ongoing support in their roles. Applicants can request a reasonable workplace accommodation/adjustment prior to accepting a job offer. If you require reasonable accommodations/adjustments in completing this application, or in any part of the recruitment process, direct your inquiries to [email protected]. Visit careers.bms.com/eeo-accessibility to access our complete Equal Employment Opportunity statement.

BMS cares about your well-being and the well-being of our staff, customers, patients, and communities. As a result, the Company strongly recommends that all employees be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 and keep up to date with Covid-19 boosters.

BMS will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, pursuant to applicable laws in your area.

If you live in or expect to work from Los Angeles County if hired for this position, please visit this page for important additional information: https://careers.bms.com/california-residents/

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